An existence no one could dare approach
Swoooosh!
Dragon wings sprouting from the back.
It was none other than 'Michella's' set effect, 'Celestial Dragon.'
It activates only when all three pieces—sword, armor, and helm—are gathered, but in the early game they're as hard to get as stars in the sky, so I bought them through the secret auction house.
'Good thing I already had Michella's sword, the hardest one to obtain.'
Compared to the sword, the armor and helm were at least somewhat easier to find. Maybe because of that, there were listings in the secret auction house where the sword was missing, but the armor and helm were each put up for instant purchase at 200,000 gold.
'There were also plenty of trap listings with a Twin Talisman already equipped, though.'
Twin Talisman.
An option that makes two talismans share each other's location.
If you buy it without knowing, you're basically handing your position straight to the seller.
Some of them even hid the Twin Talisman's name, disguising it as a 'Secret Scroll.'
Most of those were items meant for the level 1 to 5 range, and since they were cheap, they were perfect bait for beginners.
'No matter how I think about it, I can't shake the feeling they're looking for me.'
I can't shake the thought that those 'Phishing' listings are aiming at me.
The rankers in the hall of fame would've known I cleared Main Quest 2, and they'd have figured out I needed a lot of gear to finish 3 with an excellent result.
They list exactly the gear I need at dirt-cheap prices, use Phishing to track my location, then kill me.
It might be over-interpreting things, but being careful never hurts.
Of course, even so, giving up on the secret auction house wasn't an option, the fruit it bore was far too sweet.
'…To think I'd get this.'
Looking down at the ground, I let out a faint smile.
I got lucky, I never thought I'd obtain this at this timing.
In an instant, related information floated before my eyes.
[Shoes of Hermes (Epic-grade)(1)]
★ Shoes modeled after the feet of Hermes, the 'God of Wind.' Said to have flowed out of the Golden Temple. When worn, you can run as fast as the wind, but you cannot enter the 'Temple of Wind God' while wearing them.
★ Wear Requirement: All stats 40 (50-10) or higher
★ Talisman (Fairy Queen's Tears): Lowers wear requirement (all stats) by 20%.
★ Agility +3
★ 'Extreme Speed' usable
An ultra-rare item with a socket on an epic-grade piece.
You can equip a talisman, it has stat options, even a skill—an all-purpose piece of gear. But because of the wear requirement, beginners normally couldn't use it.
All stats 50.
Even with decent talent and class, you'd need to be around level 8 to satisfy that condition.
Usually, your main stat rises in large chunks while low-relevance stats barely go up.
But for me, every time I level up, all stats go up by 12, and on top of that, Fairy Queen's Tears greatly lowered the wear requirement.
'The performance is a bit underwhelming for level 8, but for me right now, there's no better equipment than this.'
More than anything, 'Shoes of Hermes' were a perfect match with Michella's set option, 'Celestial Dragon.'
I'll melt everything.
Chid Mamba exhaled a thick poisonous fog, an acidic poison that corrodes and melts anything it touches.
Flap!
Whooosh!
But the acidic poison couldn't spread, it was blown apart by a powerful wind.
Because the wings of Celestial Dragon and Extreme Speed combined, starting to create small gusts.
Hwaaaaang!
Those gusts didn't just scatter the poison fog, they also blew away the Chid Worms in an instant. Taking the brunt of the fierce wind, Chid Mamba frowned.
Wind magic? Then try blocking this too!
Chid Mamba pulled out the tail it had been hiding. Like a scorpion's, its tip was coated in lethal venom. It fired at tremendous speed, impossible to see and dodge with the naked eye.
But.
'Right.'
If you know which way it'll fire before it shoots, you can dodge it.
Before the tail needle launches, Chid Mamba twists both hands. There are exactly 26 twisting patterns, and depending on that, the firing direction changes subtly.
'Roll.'
I rolled, flew, and sprinted, dodging every venom needle.
You rat-like bastard!
Chid Mamba's rage spiked.
With neither poison fog nor needles working, Chid Mamba was helpless.
I dashed forward, now all that remained was to cut its throat.
'Stop.'
I poured all my strength into my thighs and slammed my entire body into an abrupt halt.
In that instant.
Chrrrrrk!
Countless spikes shot up right in front of me.
Venom needles hidden underground.
-Y-you even dodged that?
Shock filled Chid Mamba's eyes.
'Charging.'
After using all its patterns, Chid Mamba falls into 'Confusion' for a short while.
Just a moment, if I don't decide it in one blow, the longer it drags on, the stronger Chid Mamba becomes.
Tzzzaaak!
Gripping my greatsword, I swelled every muscle in my body.
Charging, I walked slowly toward the confused Chid Mamba.
'Extreme Speed.'
In an instant, the speed of my greatsword slash surged.
Skhk!
Like flowing water, clean and smooth, I severed Chid Mamba's neck.
The moment its despairing eyes hit the ground.
"Elite monster 'Chid Mamba' has been eliminated!"
"Contribution 100%"
"Absorbing 'Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule' (10 minutes)."
"Remaining time of 'Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule' is 47 hours 56 minutes 39 seconds."
"Darkness retreats for a moment."
"Pangaenia collapse: 9.1%"
"Acquired 'Lucky Dice'."
***
"Kyaaah!"
Hearing Kim Seo-yeon's scream, Kim Hana could barely come to her senses.
Blood splattered across the floor.
Jeong Jinwoo's arms severed from both sides.
And...
'That man from then.'
The man who had saved her from the Giant Mantis was right there.
Wearing an unfamiliar helm and armor.
And reddish-brown wings had sprouted from his back.
He looked a little different from before, but it was definitely him.
"Ah, aah..."
Kim Seo-yeon slumped down, trembling violently.
Vague terror, she couldn't move at all.
Smack!
"Snap out of it!"
Kim Hana shouted as she slapped Kim Seo-yeon's cheek.
Staying here was dangerous.
The ones who could live had to live.
Hoisting Kim Seo-yeon's shoulder and standing up, Kim Hana scanned around.
'Come to think of it, where's Hyun-myung?'
Park Hyun-myung.
He was nowhere to be seen.
'Did he run away...?'
A deep crease formed between Kim Hana's brows.
She hadn't even sensed him leaving. He'd been beside her when the bugs appeared, but after that female-shaped monster showed up, he vanished without a trace.
It was better than dying to a monster while spaced out, but still, to think he'd run off alone.
Kim Hana groaned as she dragged Kim Seo-yeon along.
Getting as far away from here as possible was the priority.
"The back door is swarming with monsters too! Come up to the second floor!"
As Kim Hana headed for the back door, a staff member on the second floor shouted.
Even the outside had already been occupied by gigantic insects.
"Please help us!"
When Kim Hana yelled, a few people from the second floor came down.
Hwaaaaang!
Clunk! Clunk!
A gust roared through.
The man instantly blew away the poison fog the monster had spewed.
Clinging to the railing and barely enduring it, Kim Hana turned her gaze.
'Ah...!'
The monster was firing venom needles.
At a speed too fast to see.
If the man didn't kill it, the monsters would massacre the remaining people in an instant.
There was no way out.
All they could do was clasp their hands and pray.
"Please, please..."
"He's a Dimension Warrior too, right? Isn't he?"
"B-but the other Dimension Warrior attacked us, didn't he? It's too soon to relax!"
People swallowed hard, tense as they watched the first floor.
That man was their last bastion.
But the other Dimension Warrior, Jeong Jinwoo, had suddenly gone mad and attacked people.
They couldn't blindly trust this man either.
"It's okay, he's on our side."
Kim Hana soothed them.
In this situation, more chaos would help nothing.
Every time a venom needle shot out, people flinched.
They were scared the man might get hit.
Swaaak!
But the man dodged the needles so easily it made their worry feel silly, and with a single strike, he cut off the monster's neck.
The moment the neck hit the ground, another change happened.
"D-did we win?"
"The monsters are melting!"
"We, we're saved!"
People shouted in triumph.
When the queen monster died, all the other insect monsters melted away and vanished.
"..."
The man turned his eyes to the people clinging to the second-floor railing.
Then.
Flap!
As he pulled his cloak over himself, his figure disappeared without a trace.
"Where did he go?"
"He vanished all of a sudden?"
It felt like seeing a ghost.
How can a person evaporate like that?
Before they could dwell on it.
"Are you alright?"
Hearing a familiar voice beside her, Kim Hana turned and, frowning, asked.
"...Hyun-myung? Where were you?"
"I was in the restroom."
In the restroom?
'Blood…?'
Kim Hana had sharp eyes.
Between Park Hyun-myung's ankle and the top of his foot, where his sock had rolled down to reveal a bit of skin, she spotted a tiny drop of blood clinging there.
Of course, in this situation, having blood on you wasn't strange.
It wasn't his blood, it could've splashed from someone else.
But the only person bleeding heavily was Jeong Jinwoo.
And Park Hyun-myung had already hidden himself before Jeong Jinwoo became like that.
If he was in the restroom, he wouldn't have contacted anyone.
So whose blood was that?
'Don't tell me?'
And the timing of when the 'man' appeared and when Park Hyun-myung disappeared, and when Park Hyun-myung reappeared and the 'man' vanished, felt oddly linked.
'Don't tell me...'
She shook her head hard. That was impossible.
Kim Hana looked back and forth between where the 'man' had disappeared and Park Hyun-myung.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No, it's not that, but..."
...Right. It must be a mistake.
There's no way Park Hyun-myung is a Dimension Warrior.
But if, by some chance, by one in ten million, Park Hyun-myung is a Dimension Warrior?
If he's that man in the photo she treasures like a charm?
Kim Hana's eyes as she stared at Park Hyun-myung grew complicated and tangled.
***
The next day.
The world fell into great chaos once again.
Attacks from another dimension had now repeated twice.
This time too, Dimension Warriors fought and stopped it, but the intensity of the attacks was steadily rising.
Some Dimension Warriors warned that such attacks would continue, and insisted cooperation with the government was necessary.
But not every Dimension Warrior, every player, was like that.
"Isn't this guy Randolph?"
In a dark secret room.
About ten people chasing Randolph.
More precisely, people searching for 'Phantom.'
They were combing through every video uploaded to SNS and YouTube, researching.
Videos of 'players' uploaded from Korea totalled exactly 178, a scale that had grown more than 1.5 times from the previous roughly hundred. Those who had been hiding were beginning to show themselves.
Randolph could be among them.
And right now, on the computer screen, a steak house in Cheongdam was being shown.
"Shoes of Hermes, that thing's wear requirement is pretty brutal, isn't it?"
"If he's only cleared Main Quest 2, he won't be able to wear Shoes of Hermes."
True.
Shoes of Hermes had a wear requirement beginners could never hope to meet.
If he had only just cleared Main Quest 2, at best he'd be level 4 or 5.
Far too early for Randolph to be wearing those shoes.
"But those wings, aren't those 'Celestial Dragon'?"
"Even if he got the helm and armor at the auction house, how did he get Michella's sword?"
"And he had 'Hydragon' before too, looks like the same character as that one."
Even if it wasn't Randolph, there were questions.
Michella's sword drops at a viciously low rate.
A super-super-super ultra-rare item, only around ten or so are out there.
What about Hydragon's soul.
It was treated as a given that only one person on the server had it, a unique soul.
No one knew who the owner was, but rumors were rampant that the owner was an operator.
"Then that guy is an 'operator'?"
"Look at him hunting 'Chid Mamba.' He's dodging every pattern by a hair's breadth."
"...Yeah. Is there anyone who can dodge with such razor-sharp patterning? Anyone who could do the same?"
"...."
All ten people gathered here could kill Chid Mamba, but none of them could read every pattern and clear it that tightly, on the brink, like that.
Because Chid Mamba's patterns were famously nasty.
It wasn't even comparable to Hydragon or Giant Mantis.
So no one tries to fully understand and clear all its patterns.
They'd rather level more and come back later.
But the man in the video was doing everything perfectly.
"Wow."
Even watching again, it was insane.
Truly by a paper-thin margin.
He lured patterns, dodged, induced Confusion, charged, then finished in a single slash. All of it flowed like water.
Nothing to cut, nothing to add.
'It's real art.'
It was practically at the level of art.
Just watching left your mouth hanging open.
If you didn't know better, you'd think he was reading the future.
Clap clap clap!
The man at the computer applauded and said,
"He's still our number one recruitment priority."
"Number zero is 'Mintchocoisdelicious.'"
"Mm. Regardless of rank, it's clear both are talents our 'Alliance' needs."
"Anyway, the other guys are moving too. Before the first rift begins, we have to release a statement as soon as possible."
They were the 'Hero' alliance of players.
What made them different from other player alliances was that they truly wanted to prepare for the rifts.
In a situation where you don't know what might burst out, what's most desperately needed is whether 'Phantom' truly exists.
If it's him, they can handle any situation.
But other player alliances were also starting to move under the surface.
If Phantom and Mintchocoisdelicious were taken by another alliance, or lost, it would be a painful blow to an alliance that called itself 'Hero.'
So they had to find them no matter what.
At least one comfort remained, both were highly likely to be Korean.
The man at the center, wearing a black mask, spoke in a heavy voice.
"Let's start by searching that area first."
***
"Cough!"
Hudson spit out the coffee he was drinking.
Right after, he looked at me with desperate eyes, praying he'd heard wrong, and said,
"...S-so you mean… you used Fairy Queen's Tears…?"